Kenya’s opposition will challenge President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election victory at the Supreme Court, opposition leader Raila Odinga said Wednesday.
“This is just the beginning. We will not just accept and move on,” Odinga said, while calling for peaceful mass protests, including night vigils, civil disobedience and labour strikes.
“We refuse to sit and watch [Kenyatta] turn our country into a banana republic,” Odinga, who leads opposition coalition National Super Alliance, added.
The opposition has rejected the results, which gave Kenyatta, 55, a second term with 54% of the vote. Odinga, 72, secured 44.7% in last week’s poll.
Opposition allegations that the elections were rigged unleashed a deadly wave of protests.
The opposition says 100 people were killed, while police gave a death toll of 10 for Nairobi. It had earlier given a death toll of six for the entire country.
Odinga said the decision to approach the Supreme Court was taken after the government announced Tuesday it would close two civil society organizations that planned to challenge the election outcome in court.
But on Wednesday, shortly before Odinga’s announcement, the government back-pedalled and suspended the de-registration process of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Africa Centre for Open Governance.
Earlier this week, an attempt by NASA to launch a nationwide civil protest against the alleged electoral fraud by asking Kenyans to stay away from work faded quickly when only few people heeded the strike call.
International observers from the EU and Carter Center, among others, called the election credible.
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